2 minutes of readingFebruary 7, 2026 11:10 am IST
With no clarity from the state leadership, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is awaiting a decision on whether it will contest the elections for mayor and deputy mayor in the civic body, scheduled for February 9.
“The NCP has filed nominations for the post of mayor and deputy mayor of the PMC as it is the second largest party in the newly elected body,” said Nilesh Nikam, NCP leader in the PMC.
The NCP has 27 elected corporators in the PMC, while the largest party is the BJP with 119 seats. Congress won 15 seats, NCP (SP) won three seats and Shiv Sena (UBT) won one seat.
The nominations were filed at the last minute with Sheetal Sawant running for the post of mayor and Dattatraya Bahirat for the post of deputy mayor. Earlier, the NCP had decided not to field its candidate, saying the party had a very small number of corporators in the elected body and was also still mourning the death of party chief Ajit Pawar.
Nikam said the party’s civic body unit will wait till February 9, which is also the last day to withdraw the nomination, for the senior leaders’ decision.
The BJP has fielded three-term corporator Manjusha Nagpure for the post of mayor and Prashuram Wadekar for the post of deputy mayor.
Due to the NCP’s uncertainty, the Congress has fielded Ashwini Landge and Sahil Kedari for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor respectively, making it a triangular fight and preventing the BJP from having a free run in the elections.
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The PMC has appointed district collector Jintendra Dudi as returning officer for the elections.